About

Ribbonfarm is a longform blog devoted to unusual takes on familiar themes. What we call “refactored perception.” It is edited by Venkatesh Rao (“Venkat”) and features weekly posts by Venkat as well as a gradually changing roster of invited resident writers, who each write 4-5 loosely related pieces over the course of a year. Past residents have included Kevin Simler, Mike Travers and Drew Austin.

The name ribbonfarm refers to the ribbon farms of 18th century Detroit — strips of lands 2-3 miles long, each with 2-300 yards along the Detroit river waterfront — that the then French governor used to resolve water disputes. I thought it was a great metaphor for a blog trying to get its thin slice of attention from the great river of eyeballs that is the Web. Here is a picture (courtesy, Detroit Public Library) of an 1818 map of Detroit that shows the ribbon farms.

About the tag-line

Experiments in refactored perceptions is a geek joke. It refers to changing how you see the world by trying to rewire the software inside your head through writing.